| CHAPTER TWO |
| Against my better judgement, I was getting ready to go to the party that night. "Mom," I called out to the house. "Hm?" The answer was distant, despite the fact that she had been standing right behind me. I jumped, startled. "I'm going out tonight, Mom. I'm not sure when I will be back, but it will be sometime between midnight and dawn." She answered me slowly. "Where?" I knew that it made little difference what my answer was, after the first few words my mother couldn't pay attention anymore. "To a party. There will probably be drugs, and people having sex. Maybe tonight someone will piss me off badly enough that I'll snap and kill them. I don't know. I've not been feeling completely stable lately. Maybe I should check into a mental ward." "Alright honey, just be careful. And take a jacket, it's getting cold." She was so far away. It hurt. "Sure, maybe I'll take out come pedestrians with a cannon on my way there." A combination between a wince and a grin passed over my face, and I kissed her on the forehead, goodbye. "Don't wait up, Mom." It was a short distance from my home to Seya's, so I took it on foot. After all, it allowed me more time to quietly brood and be tortured without anyone interrupting my train wrecks of thought. Twenty minutes or so later, I arrived at Seya's immense, looming manor - the instrument of my destruction. And I am not being dramatic. The things that I suffered in that house virtually ensured that I would be incapable of handling any of the events to come. It was, as I said, quite large. Four stories, with an attic and a basement, set apart from the rest of the neighborhood by wrought iron gates. It was the house children told each other ghost stories about Halloween night to scare each other awake, and rightly so. The place was terrifying, gloomy, and oddly enough every light in the house was on tonight. There were odd thumps emanating from the exterior as I sauntered up the stone walkway, which I was told was music. I reached the door and knocked as hard as I could to be heard over the palpitations of the huge Victorian beast. Ray opened the door relatively quickly. "Hey Dave, come in." He motioned inward, swinging the door wide, and I stepped inside. "Who's here?" I wanted to be prepared to avoid each person appropriately. "Fuck, everyone's here. You know those triplets?" He began to lead me through the crowd of people that I had never seen before in my entire existence, past the den, the parlour, the sunroom, into the kitchen, and towards the alcohol. "Uh, what triplets?" "They go to our school. Joy, Hope, and Faith," Ray paused to grin between each name. "Those names mean nothing to me. Why are you asking anyways?" Ray never brough something up unless he had a reason, which was seldom good and never wholesome. "Because they are hot, and they happen to be here, and guess who they want to talk to?" He grinned more than suggestively, and those fangs gleamed darker than usual. "From the way you keep leering at me, I suppose it is yours truly, and that they wish to do much more than talk. Christ, just tell them I don't speak English or something," I groaned, not even bothering to act interested. Ray never understood my creed of "Love first, sex second." He always claimed that it was a plot to impress the girls. Honestly, I dislike the thought of sleeping with a near stranger who might kill me while I was sleeping and take everything that I would have considered dear were I not dead. Perhaps it's just me. "Right! I'd say Joy would be your best bet. Hope and Faith will uh, befriend anyone, but Joy is very selective." "Yeah, sure. Look, Ray, I don't need you to find someone to fuck me. I assure, I'm more than capable of getting laid on my own. I just happen to adhere to a moral code." Had I known him a little better, his lack of morality might have bothered me. Had I known him a little better, I might never have gotten involved in any of this. "Suit yourself, but she's a hottie." I left the kitchen as quickly as I could, and out of nowhere a young woman stepped up to me. "I've got what you want," she batted her eyes at me in a way that I assume was supposed to be seductive, flipping her blonde her and licking her over-glossed lips. "I doubt it," I said almost politely and tried to step around her. "I promise I can show you a very good time." She swayed, pouting at me. "Yeah, I'm sure," I muttered unenthusiastically, hoping she would get the hint. Instead, she stepped closer to me than I usually find comfortable. "My name is Faith." "I really don't care," I was quickly becoming tired of this girl. Subtlety is not my best characteristic, nor is patience, and she was trying both. She pressed herself against me. I stepped back, blushing a little. "Don't touch me," I said as calmly as I could. "What, don't you want me?" I suppose she was trying to be sultry. We were beginning to draw an audience. Apparently Faith was not popular, as many people seemed to fervently wish for her embarassment. I could not have cared less either way. "Honestly, no." She pressed herself against me once more, kneading my shoulders. "What's the matter, dearie? Don't you think I can handle you?" "No, that's not it," I replied blankly. The hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up, and my vision seemed to get blurry. Something was quickly becoming incredibly wrong. |
| "Well then dear," Faith purred, "What else could it be? You prefer a man's company? Are you a fucking queer?" She spat the last word, pulling hard on my hair. I snapped quickly out of my stupor. My eyes cleared, and before she had any idea what happened, Faith was crumpled on the floor, holding a bloody nose. "I said don't fucking touch me." "Jesus fucking Christ, Dave! What the hell is wrong with you?!" Ray apparently had been watching, and shouted at me over the noise of the party. Just as I was about to turn and try to explain myself to Ray, Faith leapt off of the ground, hissing and growling. Her nails lengthened into claws and her skin emitted a nearly ethereal red glow. She moved so fucking fast, I had no time for musing. Not a single word escaped my mouth. I just reacted to her. "I'll rip your fucking throat out!" Faith's voice became shrill, as is the case with most upset women. I learned later that Ray didn't expect me to dodge or even to have time enough to blink. I didn't need time to dodge. Within a matter of seconds, I had grabbed Faith by her hair and her neck and slammed her to the ground hard enough to crack her skull. "Don't touch me," I mumbled again, blankly, and stepped over her towards the doorway of whatever room I was in. Then I didn't see with my own eyes anymore. Ray knelt beside Faith, putting his hands on the sides of her face. "Faith, wake up," he whispered gently. Why am I seeing this? Someone wants me to see this, I remember thinking. After Ray found that this did not work, he tried a different approach. Ray closed his eyes and forced his way into Faith's feeble mind. He sent her dreams only a monster could love, and Faith was not a monster, yet. She stood in a grassy field, but something was wrong... Maybe it was the sky. No - that was a bright, cheerful blue, the sun was shining it's sickly yellow. The clouds? No, they were fluffy white, shaped like rabbits frolicking. Faith moved her head gently to the side, straining to listen for... something. She understood part of it. No birds sang here. No insects communicated in their cheerful, chirpy manners, and no wind blew. It was as if Gaia herself was terrified of breathing. Faith took a step forward, smiling at the feel of the blackening sun on her pale skin. Something wet was beneath her feet. She looked downward absently, and screamed. Blood covered her up to her ankles, and the expanse of the field she was standing in. The plants were no longer a lush green, but the sickly mauve of long clotted blood. The now black sun began to shift into a sanguinary moon, grinning in ghastly delight at the horrific sight playing out below her. Faith panicked, her head whipping about to examine this place that could not be. The grinning bloody orb above Faith completed it's transmogrification. The wretched plants beneath her wretched feet changed into the rotting corpses of hundreds of children, left dead long ago for ravens and other less picky carrion. Faith's knees betrayed her, and she sank into the less than solid refuse. As she settled, wretching numbly, a child's head missing a body fell into her lap. "No," she moaned slowly as tears fought their way free from behind her eyes, just before her stomach began emptying itself. Two perfect green orbs stared up at her, frozen in fear. They were the eyes of a child who would never smile again, the eyes of trust and innocence, betrayed. Faith's tears turned bloody, almost acidic, and as they fell on the child's face her corrupted essence mingled with the gore on the child's mangled face. Flesh fell off of the petite skull, reminding Faith that she was a thing that should not be. Acid began to rain from the skies, and Faith lifted her open eyes to the blessed pain, not wanting to see anymore. She had lost so much... Amidst a thunder crack, a voice from far away roared. "Wake up, bitch," the moon screamed. The world fell away, but the pain remained. "Faith, shut up." Ray was talking to her. Faith had yet to realize she'd been howling with fear. She shut her mouth indignantly, afraid to touch her face. She was afraid there would be chemical burns; open, seething, angry wounds. "Stay the fuck out of my head!" Faith shouted, leaping to her feet, hoping to get away. Ray seized her by the arm, and she winced. Without wanting to she examined her arm, and her eyes widened at the sight of trickling red welts on her snowy, pure skin. "You were asking for it," he growled at her. "Don't mess with his head. The next time you pull something like that, if he doesn't kill you, I will. Besides, your mind is not yours anymore. It belongs to the elders, and we will walk freely as we please." Stern promises, not idle threats. "What the hell happened," Faith whispered. Laughing, Ray said simply, "He is being awakened. The serum I've been giving him everyday is beginning to become active." There were voices in my mind, and too many people staring at me. A single voice rose above the others. This is what you will be, David. Dangerous. You were born for a single purpose: to KILL. Then finally, my mind was my own, and I escaped to a dark corner as the eyes found other places to focus. |